Ben 10: Fear of the Dark
by Phantom64
Summary: Ben, Julie, Gwen, Kevin, and their new partner Deputy Rex must solve a string of missing children cases.But as the missing kid numbers rise and Ben begins hallucenating, the gang finds that they're dealing with a creature of Lovecraftian proportions.BxJ
1. Missing

A/N: Okay after a long, long, long, LONG, break, I'm hoping I don't slack off with this one. First Ben10 fic, so enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10 or any of it's characters, only this story idea and some original characters.

Ben 10: Fear of the Dark

Chapter 1: Missing

It was a peaceful night in the quiet neighborhood. No aliens to terrorize them, no strange men in knight's armor lurking about for said aliens, nothing out of the ordinary. In his bedroom, little Bobby held onto the covers as his mother kissed him goodnight.

"Sleep tight sweetie," Bobby's mother whispered gently, as her hand went to shut off the lamp.

"No don't turn it off!" Bobby pleaded. His mother sighed.

"Bobby, you're too old for this, you need to sleep with it off."

"But it's waiting for you to do that." Bobby whimpered.

"Who is?" She asked, though she already knew the answer.

"The bogeyman…."

"Bobby Kyler that is quite enough. I don't know what those little jerks in your class told you but there is no such thing as the bogeyman, and there is nothing waiting for you in the dark, got it?" Mrs. Kyler looked at her son sternly. He replied with a meek nod. "Good, now go to sleep." She turned the lamp off and closed the door.

Any warmth that came from Bobby's room soon vanished when the door was shut. He was enveloped in darkness except for the moonlight entering from the window, which showed his closet in perfect light. What was It that those kids in his class said? The bogeyman loves when it's dark to go after kids from their closets? But his mother clearly said there was no such thing as one, so there shouldn't be. The child's concentration was broken by a noise. He jumped a bit, as he realized it was a slow creak. He opened an eye to see that the closet door was open a bit. But didn't his mother shut it before tucking him into bed.

WHAP!

A frail, chilling blue hand slapped against the wall, the rest of what the arm belong to was hidden in the closet. Another hand rested on the door, and pushed it open. Bobby began to whimper. It was just like the kids told him it would look like: tall, scarecrow-like, with thin, cold blue limbs. A strange coat of black hiding it's body, only it's glowing red eyes and gleaming sharp teeth could be seen. Bobby, stiff as a board, could only watch in horror as the bogeyman made its way towards the bed with slow, painfully long steps. As it approached, poor Bobby tried to croak the word "Mommy," but to no avail. As the tall mass of black neared the bed, Bobby did the only thing he could think of. He thrust his head and body under the covers.

"He isn't there! He isn't there! He isn't there! There's no such thing as the bogeyman! No such thing…"

Bobby slowly peeked his head over the covers, only to find leering red eyes looking down upon him. As it's inhumanly skinny arms reached for the terrified boy, a single, croaked and warped word escaped from the mass of sharp teeth…

"**BOBBY…**"

Mrs. Kyler nearly dropped her hair roller when she heard the ear piercing shriek coming from her son's room.

"Bobby?!" the mother screamed as she bounded down the hallway, tearing her son's door open. She flipped on the lights only for a second to see the closet door slam shut.

"Bobby!" Mrs. Kyler flew into the closet but slammed herself against the wall and mass of shirts and shorts. She frantically felt around the small room frantically screaming her son's name. She stopped when she thought she heard someone scream 'mommy' in the back of her mind. She began to calm down,… that was until she found something written on the wall in red, covered by the hanging clothes. She pushed them aside and began to read each word. With each verse her face went from terror to madness. She fell back screaming like a banshee, holding herself as she screamed "NO!" more times than anyone could count. She just kept screaming over the red verse….

_Keep the light on, until the night Is done_

_The Bogeyman is here to take your son_

Ben Tennyson sat as his computer desk trying his best to focus on typing his essay for his English class. It was on H.P. Lovecraft and how his work revolutionized horror. Ben loved horror movies and some horror books, but it was hard for him to follow Lovecraft. Thank God for synopsizes and explanations on Wikipedia. Ben felt kinda bad. He had read some of his stories, like the Dunwich Horror, Shadow Over Insmouth, and Call of Clthulu. He had read how his work has inspired several movies and videogames, hell he heard that Resident Evil 4 was loosely based off of one. After an hour of checking Wikipedia and typing, he had one page done.

"Five more to go," Ben muttered. His mood perked up when he heard a 'ping!'. He brought his IM up and found that his girlfriend Julie Yamamoto had signed on. "Sorry H.P. but you're gonna have to be put on hold," he smiled as he began chatting with Julie.

Ben-10: Hey Julie!

TennisXLover: Hey Ben! 3

Ben-10: What are you up to?

TennisXLover: Working on my Lovecraft essay, which I hope you're working on. XD

Ben-10: It'll be done when it's done okay?

TennisXLover: okay. ^_^

Ben-10: So when is your cousin going to be here?

TennisXLover: Probably sometime tomorrow. I think we'll be fine as long as we avoid the little brat -_-;

Ben-10: Oh come on, you two sound like me and Gwen when we were younger. XD

TennisXLover: lol Probably. ^^

Ben tore his face from the screen when he heard his phone go off. He grabbed it and flipped it open.

"Hello? Oh hey Gwen!.... trouble huh? Missing kid? Yikes. Unusual circumstances? The police are asking for us to come? Oh boy if they need us that can't be good. Okay I'll be over there in a jiff!" Ben snapped his phone off.

Ben-10: Sorry Julie but I gotta get off. Looks like there's trouble.

TennisXLover: oh, ok. Be careful Ben. And be sure to tell me when you get back!

Ben-10: Ok bye!

Ben shut his im off and dashed out of the house after telling his parents about the emergency. "Okay, it's hero time," he declared slamming his watch down. In a flash of green he became the large-winged alien Jetray. He flew off, wondering what he will find at the Kyler residence.

Ben landed near the Kyler residence, the bright lights of the police cars and yellow tape being his marker. The local cops did not react, only nodding as Ben transformed back into his human form. From the group came two police officers. One was Sheriff Boone and the other was his right hand man Deputy Rex. Boone was a middle-aged man with a slight belly. He scratched his graying beard as he approached the young teen. Rex was in his late twenties with blond hair combed back all the way with a decent build and piercing green eyes. Years ago calling in a teenager to what may be an inhuman case would seem insane, but after a few years of blotched alien invasions, extraterrestrial attacks, and a teenager turning into more than ten different aliens, the Sheriff and Deputy practically had his cell number in their books.

"Hey Sheriff, hey Rick," Ben greeted casually.

"good to see ya Ben!" Rex declared with his slight southern accent, shaking his hand.

"Come on, your cousin and her hooligan boyfriend are waiting inside," Sheriff Boone explained. The trio walked into the house and found Ben's cousin Gwen Tennyson comforting a near hysterical Mrs. Kyler while Ben's old rival turned friend Kevin Levin leaned against the wall.

"Alright Mrs. Kyler, tell us everything from the beginning," Sheriff Boone said softly.

Mrs. Kyler sniffled as she began. "I was…I was tucking Bobby in. He was,.. he was begging me to keep the light on. Those little snots at school filled his head with that bogeyman nonsense... so I went to my room and then I hear him scream…." Mrs. Kyler held herself for comfort. "And then…. And then….. OH GOD!" she hysterically sobbed on Sheriff Boone.

"Uh, Rex why don't you take them to the crime scene?" Boone asked awkwardly, trying to comfort the mother.

"Sure thing boss." Rex motioned for the kids to follow them.

"So what happened?" Ben asked.

"From what the cops got out of her before we got here, she said she saw someone drag the kid into the closet, but when she opened the door, no one was there." Kevin explained.

"Poor Bobby… I hope we can find him," Gwen said worried.

"Alright, here it is," Rex said leading them into the eight year olds room. Ben thought to himself it looked basically like his when he was eight. There was a baseball glove on the floor, a desk with a pile of clothes, and a few posters of popular cartoons. "And here's the point of interest," the deputy pointed towards the closet. "God first those miners go missing out at that tunnel and now this…"

Ben made his way to the closet, he knelt down and red the red verse. "Keep the light on, until the night is done, the Bogeyman is here to take your son?"

"Creepy stuff," Kevin commented. Rex nodded in approval.

Gwen held onto the baseball bat, a pink glowing aura surrounded it. She sighed. "This can't be right. I can sense his life force leading into the closet, but after that the trail just… stops."

"What do ya think?" Rex asked.

"Has to be an alien with some sort of teleporting ability," Kevin answered. "Only explanation other than the possibility that child abductors skipped a few hundred evolutionary jumps."

"Yeah, but if it was a teleporting alien, I should still feel something of Bobby. There's not even a faint spark it's like… he just vanished from the earth." Gwen felt a chill go down her spine at that thought.

Ben, confused as hell, moved towards the window looking down at the cops and small crowd of neighbors. But someone caught his eye. away from the small mob, standing near a tree, was a strange man in a blue trench coat, he wouldn't seem out of the ordinary except for the pair of piercing yellow eyes that Ben could see even at this distance. The strange man was staring right at him, with a slight grin on his aged face.

"Ben?" The teen hero turned his head to find Gwen. "We'd best help with the search party, maybe he's somewhere in town… I hope. "

"Sure thing." Ben turned his head to see that the trench-coated man was gone, as if he was never there. Ben followed Kevin, Gwen, and Rex out of the house.

"So where do we begin?" Ben asked.

"One half's searching the industrial section. Another's searching downtown, I'm heading towards the woods, wanna come? Rex asked.

"Sure, me and Gwen will meet you there," Kevin grabbed Gwen and they ran to his trademark green car.

"Alright Ben hop in my squad," Rex was cut off by a flash of green. "….car."

"That's okay…" the tall ghostly Big Chill said. "I'll meet you there." With that said, the frigid alien flew off towards the woods.

"Man I have GOT to get me one of those!" Rex commented with envy.

Far, far away in the lab of the small alien Azmuth, the aged creator of the Omnitrix sat working out the kinks of one of his newest machines. "Blasted cheap wires…." He cursed. He jumped up when he heard an alarm. "what?" Azmuth hopped to his computer, and found a bizarre warning on his screen.

Warning: strange semi-organic being released on Planet Earth.

Species: Unknown

Description: Classified

Threat level: Omega

"My God," Azmuth gasped, almost falling off the platform. "Those foolish humans! What have they done?!" Another screen popped up.

Password needed for more information and options for containment.

A weary Azmuth realized that Ben, the warrior of the Omnitrix was about to face the most horrid creature this universe didn't even realize exsited. With a sigh he began to type in the password:

LOVECRAFT

End of Chapter

A/N: Be sure to leave a comment.


	2. Peculiar Characters

A/N: Okay, here's chapter 2

Just to make it clear this is mostly a Ben/Julie fic, but Kevin and Gwen will have plenty of moments…. Anything to try and stop the over-flowing cousin-humper fics that pollute this section.

Chapter 2: Peculiar Characters

It was a cool Saturday at the Yamamoto residence, Ben laid his head In Julie's lap on her bed. He mumbled a bit as he explained the missing child Bobby Kyler and the fruitless search that lasted all night. They combed through the woods while the other search parties scoured every nook and cranny of Bellwood, but it seemed the kid really did disappear. Mrs. Kyler had to be sedated she was in so much grief and panic. The police were baffled. The doors were locked, the windows were secured, there was no sign of forced entry.

"That poor mother, I can't even begin to think about what she's going through," Julie said sadly as she held Ben in her lap. "So do you think it was an alien?"

"hm, maybe…" Ben yawned. "Still why would an alien want to take children?"

"I don't know, maybe the alien has a child labor mine," Julie answered.

"It it was a slave driver looking for child labor it would've taken children in masse instead of taking one kid and leaving a creepy poem," Ben replied.

"True. Hey maybe aliens have their own child predators?" Julie shrugged. "You've had more experience with this stuff, I'm just guessing."

Ben kept talking while he rested his eyes. " I don't know, nothing adds up. No trace on the kid, that creepy as hell red poem, and that guy in the blue coat I saw… What does it all mean?" He could still remember those yellow eyes still staring at him, like they were looking past his body and into his soul.

"Look, you just sleep and then we'll get some chili fries. Maybe after a good nap and some junk food we'll be ready to try and find this child-stealing creep," Julie smiled caressing Ben's cheek. The brunette smiled, happy to have such a caring girlfriend. He nuzzled in her lap and fell to sleep quickly…

… But not even sleep could shake off the feeling that those eyes were still watching him…

BT-BT-BT

Later in the afternoon Ben and Julie walked through the neighborhood hand-in-hand. It was sunny, the wind was blowing, and the temperature was perfect. Despite the tragic disappearance of a child, the beautiful day added with walking with a beautiful girl made Ben feel at ease. They reached the area that borders the city and the neighborhood when they noticed a man looking down at a group of flowers growing out of the ground. There were three of them bunched together, all three were very beautiful. As for the man, from what they could tell he seemed like a Native American in his late twenties-early thirties with long groomed black hair, and was wearing a white buttoned collar shirt with workers jeans and workers boots. Ben and Julie could see that he had a bear claw held around his neck by a leather string.

"It's beautiful isn't it?" the Native American man said gently, not even taking his eyes off of the flowers.

"What you mean those flowers?" Ben asked confused.

"Yes, so many people take flowers for granted. Even a single sunflower could make even the most barren of areas look beautiful." The man turned to the confused teens. "I'm sorry, just some old ramblings my father used to tell me. My name is Michael." He extended his firm hand.

"Um, I'm Ben Tennyson," Ben greeted shaking his hand.

"And I'm his girlfriend Julie Yamamoto," Julie added shaking his hand as well, "Nice to meet you sir."

"Ah, you must be the child people are talking about, the one with the magic watch," He said knowingly.

"Uh Alien watch to be exact, but yeah that's me," Ben explained awkwardly. "So are you new in town?"

"Yes, I just got here. I was hoping to help the archeologists with looking for those artifacts that are rumored to be in the mine, but when I got here, I heard that the miners who were helping them disappeared, and now a child is missing." Michael shook his head. "Bad times my friends. Bad times."

"Yeah, things seem to be looking pretty bad, but Ben's going to save them and stop whatever is behind this!" Julie said with zeal, Ben humbly blushing.

Michael came up to Ben, a serious look on his face. "Be warned, alien hero, you will need more than that watch to face what Is lurking in Bellwood." Michael placed something in Ben's hand and then walked away from the couple. "Take care."

Ben and Julie looked at the item with confusion. It was a beautifully design cross made from some kind of metal. It was all white except for a black outline and a black gem embedded in it. "A cross? Uh thanks Michael but I'm not going up against," Ben raised his head to see the mysterious Indian walk around a fence corner. "… the devil."

"That was weird," Julie commented. "He seemed nice, but still weird."

Ben shrugged and placed the cross in his jacket pocket. "Come on, let's get some chili fries and meet up with Kevin and Gwen. Confusion makes me hungry."

"ANYTHING makes you hungry Ben!" Julie teased pinching his face. They both laughed as they walked downtown happily. After five minutes of walking, they had finally reached Mr. Smoothie, which was oddly empty with the exception of the owner and one customer.

"Geeze where is everybody?" Ben asked the owner.

"Sheriff Boone's holding a press conference right now. Everyone's on edge thinking this creep is gonna try and kidnap another kid, though the chances of that happening are zip," the smoothie shop owner explained as he prepared their chili fries and smoothies. "The Sheriff's trying to calm everyone down. God I hope they find that kid."

After paying the owner Ben and Julie went outside for some privacy, eating on the bench table.

"He's right you know, the chances of a serial child abductor would be zip, they'd just take the one they took and get the hell out of dodge," Julie theorized while taking a bite out of a cheesy chili-covered fry.

"Still if it was a normal abductor Gwen should've been able to get a trace on Bobby. But what motive could an alien want for taking a normal child?" This entire case was driving Ben nuts. Nothing pieced together. He drowned his frustration in chili-fries and his smoothie.

"Ah, ah, ah, I wouldn't eat those so quickly! As bad as they are, to scarf them would only make them worse!" a man exclaimed in a cheerful German accent.

Ben turned around, not even noticing the person's approach until he spoke. Ben nearly fell back as he saw him. It was the same man with the blue trenchcoat. He was of average size and build, standing about 5 foot 10 and looked to be middle-aged with neatly combed gray hair. His faced showed minor lines of aging, and his eyes were yellow, but not as piercing as they were last night. He wore the recognizable blue coat buttoned up along with brown pants and nice shoes. Ben felt uneasy despite his friendly comment. His face gave that one a man with candy in one hand, but a knife in the other. "Forgive me," the strange German said to Ben, "I only came to see the boy they claim can turn into monsters."

"Aliens actually," Ben corrected.

"Ah, Aliens now." The strange German stared at Ben intently. "My name is Ancell Krauser. I am an, how you say, wealthy and successful business man." He walked around the benched eyeing the creeped out teen. "I was funding the archeologists who were searching the old mine for more of those precious Native American artifacts said to be hidden there. Such lost treasures could rake up a fortune, but unfortunately the miners who were clearing some blocked tunnels disappeared."

"It's really sad for those families," Julie added.

"Yes, yes," he said sadly. "Now I may have to pay those families reparations. Tragic," Krauser said sarcastically.

"Excuse me?" Julie demanded, rather offended.

"Oh I am sorry my little slant-eyed beauty, did I insult someone?" Krauser said mockingly.

"Hey, watch it creep!" Ben stood up glaring, ready to defend his girlfriend's honor. The rude German simply chuckled.

"Be careful, Ben Tennyson. Those aliens can't save you forever." Krauser said grabbing his arm. "Those aliens can't save you from madness!" Ben gasped. His yellow eyes were glowing with that same ill aura from last night.

"Ben!" Julie yelled standing up.

Just then a familiar Green Camaro drove up, with Kevin and Gwen jumping out of the car eying Krauser, ready to rumble.

"You lookin' for trouble pops?" Kevin asked threateningly, his hand on his car ready to punch the crap out of this stranger with a fist of metal.

"No, I was just on my way," Krauser said letting go of Ben and walking off. "Be seeing you, hero boy." He chuckled as he walked off with his hands in his coat pockets.

"Ben, Julie are you okay?" Gwen asked running up to her cousin and friend.

"Yeah, but that's the guy I told you about, the guy with the coat from last night." Ben watched the mysterious figure retreat further downtown.

"Think he knows something about the kid?" Kevin asked.

"I don't know, but we should watch our backs around that guy," Ben said. "So what are you guys doing here? I thought we were meeting at your house Gwen."

"We WERE. But somebody just had to get a spare tire to go with the other spare he already has!" She glared at Kevin.

"Hey, if we get stuck in the middle of nowhere with TWO flats, you'll thank me then!" Kevin said pointing his finger at his girlfriend.

"Anyway we were heading back when we saw that creep grabbing you," Gwen explained.

"Okay so seeing as you're here, we should talk about our plan for tonight's watch-"

A large explosion caused Ben to be silenced. Soon after an alarm began to ring.

"A bank Robbery? Now there's something I can handle easily." Ben slammed his watch down and was enveloped in green light.

BT-BT-BT

"I want the money in the bag now bitch!" the masked robber yelled, pointing his handgun at the frightened bank teller. Behind him were two other masked robbers, one with another handgun, and the other had a strange oversized alien quad-cannon.

"Man we were lucky to find that crate that those D&D weirdoes in the armor accidentally left at that warehouse!" the goon with the alien gun exclaimed. "No idea what this thing is, but I know it makes a nice hole in that vault door!" the other goon was quickly grabbing mounds of cash in the vault.

"Yeah that baby's gonna make us rich-"

The robber was slammed into the wall by a blue blur.

"What the-" The other robber who was threatening the teller was also attacked by the blue blur.

"Geeze, now you bank robbers are getting upgrades?" XLR8 asked mockingly.

"uh…. A talking dinosaur on skates?" the bank robber asked confused.

It took Ben some time but he tinkered with the Omnitrix enough to get both his old aliens back along with his newer ones, now he had access to at least 21 aliens, not counting the new ones after the watch recalibrated itself after dealing with the Highbreed. He was glad to have Four-Arms and the others back. Though now it was a rather tough call cycling through all of those aliens in the heat of battle.

"Why don't you just give up?" XLR8 asked rather confidently.

"Not a chance freak!" the bank robber yelled charging the quad-cannon. Ben could dodge the attack easily with XLR8, but he also had to take the hostages around him into the equation. He can't let them get hurt. He quickly turned back into Ben, and then swiftly became enveloped in green light. When he returned he was the tall stone-encrusted alien Chromastone.

"Die already weirdo!" the bank robber yelled as four bright blasts of blue energy shot out of the alien cannon. Cromastone simply walked forward, allowing the blast to hit him head-on. He simply absorbed the barrage until the gun over-heated. The goon looked up slack-jawed as Chromastone grabbed the alie quad-cannon and crumpled it in his hands. "Oh no," he gulped.

"Oh yes," Chromastone grinned. He swiftly punched the goon in the chest, sending him into a wall out cold.

A few minutes later the police arrived, taking the three battered crooks away in handcuffs.

"I gotta hand it to ya Ben, you sure know how to sweep people off their feet," Deputy Rex said jokingly as they leaned on his squad car.

"Well at least we have some good news," Ben commented. "So me, Gwen, and Kevin are going to be on the lookout, in case whatever took Bobby Kyler is going to come back."

"Well you be careful, and I'll be on patrol too so call me," Rex said to his teenage friend.

BT-BT-BT

Gwen had her clothes out nearly on her bed. She had just gotten out of the shower and was in nothing but her underwear. She blushed a tad looking at herself in the mirror. Despite her valedictorian appearance, she had started to by less-than-modest undergarments. Right now she was wearing a satin pair of black panties and a matching bra, both with white frills outlining them. Just because she dressed bookishly didn't mean she didn't wear something sexy, though she'd never admit this to anyone. _"What am I thinking about my undies for?"_ Gwen thought in her head. _"I need to be focused. Another kid may go missing. I still don't understand why I can't track that missing boy…" _

_Crack_

Gwen spun around, her hands glowing with a pink aura. Someone was outside on the tree limb next to her window. Ever since Ben ran into that creepy German, she had a strange feeling of dread. If it was trouble she was ready to blast it away. She drew closer, quickly opening the window with her pink energy… when a well-built motor-head with black hair tripped into the room from the tree.

"KEVIN!" Gwen screamed blushing.

"Hey babe," He said innocently.

"What were you doing in my tree?" she demanded.

"I was waiting in my car…. Then I saw you from the window. You know for a girl who dresses pretty modestly, you have some racy panties…. Me likey." He said blushing with a perverted grin.

Gwen had just realized she still hadn't covered herself. With a scream she forced Kevin into the corner with his back-turned using her pink mana, and tried fruitlessly to get dressed with one hand.

"I won't peek, just get ready. We have a long night ahead of us." Kevin closed his eyes and smiled. _"But then again this was a great way to start out an all night patrol… I wonder if she has anything like that in red…." _His mind soon went to a very happy place while Gwen furiously got dressed.

End of Chapter

A/N: Be sure to comment


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